Welcome to another instalment of ‘these are all the Burgundies I’ve tasted recently’, a collection of indulgent tasting highlights from the Grand Jours de Bourgogne 2026 (a week-long Burgundian wine fair in early March). So far in this series, I’ve looked at how much Chablis I can taste in one session, been bedazzled by a smorgasbord of Vosne mega-wines, tasted many mercurial Mâconnais whites, and worked through a challenging lineup from the Côte de Nuits.

Of all the sessions in this Burgundian adventure, there was one lineup that felt like Burgundy Pleasuretown. Or at least, that was the persistent vibe I got wandering around the Pommard & Volnay hall…

I’ve never flown first class. There is no turning left for wine scribes. But even if I had the dollars, I don’t think I could ever justify going all in. Business class? Yes yes. The full suite luxury experience? A colossal waste.

The same can be said for wine. So often, the Grand Cru wines, the unicorns and icons, are just not worth spending twice as much as their peers. And especially so in Burgundy, when mere metres between vineyards separate wines that cost $100 from those that cost $1,000.

I’m not saying don’t go long on the great stuff. Rare Rutherglen Muscat is probs worth more than double that of Classic. Also, don’t let me start another long-winded explanation about value systems. But I’d still rather comfort and deliciousness rather than luxury every day of the week.

In a tangential way, that brings us to today’s focus tasting – a lineup of red (and some white) wines from the Côte de Beaune (the hill at the southern end of the Burgundy’s fabled Côte d’Or escarpment), led by an extra delicious selection of 2023 Pommard & Volnay wines.

Obvious.ly classing these Burgundian red wines somehow more affordable is a misnomer – we’re still in fancy wine land, with the prices to match. Yet when compared to some of the even fancier wines from the northern end of the Côte d’Or (places like Vosne-Romanée, Gevrey-Chambertin or Nuits-Saint-Georges), we’re more often in business rather than first class for pricing.

Of course, super confusingly, the Côte de Beaune also has some of the most expensive white wines on the planet (from appellations centred on the villages of Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet), and we’ll cover those off in a separate post (eventually). For now, though, I want to talk about why I like the wines of Volnay (and to a marginally lesser extent, Pommard) first.

It’s all about fruit. The 2023 reds from these pretty neighbouring French wine villages are so often pretty wines that feel generous. My tasting notes are a mudbath of red fruit, with words like round and luscious like a well-worn cliche. Even Pommard, which has more clay- and ironstone-rich soils than Volnay’s steeper, limestone-dominant plots and typically produces more muscular wines, delivered plushness this vintage.

Beyond the Pommard/Volnay nexus, you’ll also see a selection below of wines from the broader Côte de Beaune that shifts from the welcome mat to a bit more of a journey in the backyard. You’ll find proper establishment wines in that selection, complemented by a few wines from the quite exciting, climate-buffering fringe of the Hautes-Côtes.